Tea Box

Once I made the knitting box for my fiancee, I could tell my Mom was a bit jealous when she saw that. I thought, you know… I’m going to make something really nice for mother’s day and thought that a tea box would be the perfect choice.

I did some research and found a website called Boxes by Boureau which has some amazing boxes. Maybe he’s a member here?? Viewing his work along with the first book I got on the topic, Box by Box by Jim Stack (Easily one of the best guides I’ve bought so far for box making and helping with my woodworking skills in general) gave me what I needed to get started.

I chose to do the box in ash, lacewood and oak with a pen blank of spalted maple that I made into the lift tab. The interior compartment separations I made from cherry and I finished it in a tung oil that I got from the wood supply place. (Had to drive about three hours to get the wood for this project but it was worth it.)

I also used some roasted oak (the only bits I had left… read below) to do keyed mitres (building the sled jig for that was a little project all in its own! : ) and then rounded those off to give it a more finished appearance. I also picked up and cut to size a bit of cork sheet to make the soften the lift tab hitting the box.

The only real problem I had while working on this project was the hinges for the lid. ( Did I mention that hinges are an ongoing point of frustration for me??) I wanted it to be a pin hinge like the plan I was going from in the box book but all I ended up doing was ruining a perfectly good roasted oak lid frame and so had to use regular oak that I stained to match the mitres. Oh well… the regular hinges make the lid open and close so it all worked out.

When it was all done, I put the really nice box I made into a crappy cardboard box (can’t make the outer box nicer than the important one inside! ; ) and gave it to Mom.

I thought I had done a pretty good job, but the tears were all the proof I needed. I got hooked on the feeling of making a gift that had a lot of thought and effort into it rather than going to the store and spending a few minutes grabbing something off the shelf and I know that she agreed.